Maybe Just Once
by Lacey Grimstone
Summary: There's a new girl at Hogwarts who befriends Lily and the Marauders in their 5th year.Problem is she is starting to fall for the rebellious, prankster Sirius Black. Sirius/O.C.
1. Chapter 1

**Oh my goodness this has been crazy. Again I apologize to everyone for everything that happened and all of the ridiculous changes I was trying to make...like I figured from the beginning I never wanted to stop this story. Though I will be changing a few things. Actually quite a bit of things. First would be with the character Isabella...she needed to be explained more what with her whole 'vampire' situation that i seemed to have forgotten the last time. I also will have her and her relationships with everyone explained more as well, and everything with Lucius will be changed, as when I reread it...it didn't make that much sense. I'm really happy you enjoy reading this story and I hope you will start over fresh with me and enjoy the new adventure with Isabella and the others starting in their FIFTH year. :) You all are incredible. Thank you for reading.**

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><p>"Mum, do I really have to go?" My voice came out slightly raspy from earlier this morning as I had spent most of it crying. I continued to try and keep up with my mother inside of the train station, my bags being dragged across the cobblestone.<p>

"Honey, we already talked about this. This is only for a year until we get things straightened out." She said clearing her throat after; I could tell she was trying to keep herself from crying.

I sighed as loudly as I could, hoping she would hear it. I pulled one of my bags off of the ground and threw it over my shoulder in attempts to make it easier to carry.

Yes, she had already discussed this with me. As did my father but I still didn't completely understand why I had to leave home. Why I had to leave them. I knew it was something that had o do with the Ministry of Magic; I overheard them talking one night. Though eavesdropping can only get you so much information.

"We are only doing this to keep you safe." She said for probably the hundredth time this morning. "There is no place safer than Hogwarts."

"Mum I know that…" I said rolling my eyes. "But, im just nervous. What if they find out about…me?" I asked her, setting my bags down; my arms needed a rest.

"Just relax sweetheart. They won't." She said in an assuring voice. I nodded and once again picked up the bags.

I could feel my stomach churn with the thought of others finding out what I was. At first I thought being a witch was difficult enough, being that we lived in a Muggle filled neighborhood. I didn't go to school with Muggles though. No, my father thought it best o have my mother stay home and teach me herself. Yes that's right. Im homeschooled. Ever since I could remember…so I don't exactly have any friends. Unless of course you count Mrs. Olson from across the street who gives me candy every time she sees me. I barely even spend time around d people who weren't my family.

Though most of my family didn't exactly like what I or my father is. This brings me back to my original story.

My father is a vampire; so technically I am half vampire. Apparently that wasn't as evident when I was a baby, once I turned nine I got some pretty large canine teeth, some people could call them fangs, that made my Muggle doctor almost faint when he saw them.

Let me just say this right now; I don't drink blood. I don't crave it or even think about. If I am even in a situation that includes blood I faint…which right there shows you how pathetic I am. I have extremely pale skin that gets a few looks in itself. It looks as if I have never even been outside before. Lastly…there were my eyes. They changed color. Not normal color like blue or brown. Like red or sometimes even black; is not cute. Though, my father found a potion that could help with this which Madam Pomfrey, the Healer at Hogwarts, has some made for me. I take it every week so my eyes stay a natural normal color and my 'fangs' aren't as noticeable.

Today I could say I looked like your average witch; black wavy hair and light hazel eyes. You couldn't tell I was a vampire. And I planned on keeping it that way.

I tried to act normal as I walked through platform 9 ¾ just as my mum had done. She had gone to Hogwarts when she was a kid; she told me everything there was to know about Hogwarts. The houses, classes, teachers, Quidditch. All of it. She had been in Ravenclaw, the one I was hoping to be apart of now too.

"Here we are!" My mum said looking at the hoards of kids my age talking and laughing with each other. There were some teary eyed parents in the mix too. "I will take your bags, ok? You can get onto the train to find a good compartment." She told me taking the bags from my hands.

I could feel tears rolling down my cheek but I quickly wiped them away before my mum could see.

"Ok! Are you ready?" She asked trying to get me excited. I just shrugged.

"Do I have a choice?" I asked her crossing my arms.

"You will be fine. I love you; your father wanted me to give you this for him." She pulled me into one of the deadliest hugs ever before finally I squirmed out.

"Love you too." I said looking up into my mum's eyes.

"Write me every week! Tell me about your friends and classes." She said giving me another hug before pushing me forward towards the door.

"Bye." I said, my voice cracking a bit from trying to hold tears back. I stepped inside the train and looked around wondering which way I should go try to find a compartment.

Luck must have been on my side today as I found an empty compartment. I set the only bag I kept with me on the seat beside me. I slid over to the window and scanned the crowd of parents. In the midst I could see my mother clearly in tears now waving at me. I felt the train lurch forward.

I waved to her and mouthed 'bye' and 'I love you' probably twenty times before she was finally out of sight. I slumped back into the seat and looked at the empty compartment. At least im alone…

That soon ended when I heard a knock on the compartment door. I groaned slightly as I stood up to open it. Now I will have to…socialize…

There was a girl who I guessed was about my age standing outside the door trying to avoid being pushed by the others walking past her. She had long curly red hair with bright green eyes that reminded me of my favorite Muggle candy, apple airheads.

"Hi, um do you mind if I sit with you?" She asked smiling a bit.

"Sure…" I said moving out of the way so she could step inside. She thanked me and sat down in the seats across from where I was. I slide the door shut and sat down in the now awkward silence there was between the two of us.

"Im Lily, by the way. Lily Evans." She said sticking her hand out for me to shake.

"Isabella Rettington." I said grabbing a hold of her hand. The door slid open once again and two more girls stepped in.

"Lily! There you are!" One of the girls said pulling her into a hug.

"Alice it's so good to see you!" Lily said to the girl with the short light brown hair. Lily's gaze turned to the second girl with the long blonde hair. "It's good to see you too, Chels!"

"Who's this?" The blonde girl, otherwise known as 'Chels', asked turning to me.

"Oh, right, im sorry. This is Isabella Rettington." Lily said introducing me. "Isabella this is Chelsea Hawthorn and Alice Prewett." I only nodded and gave a small smile towards the two.

Alice sat down by Lily while Chelsea sat down hesitantly beside me. The three of them talked before finally bringing me into the conversation, which honestly I didn't really want to happen.

"So what house are you in?" Lily asked me.

"Im not in one…this is my first year." I told her. They all looked at me odd for a second before the next question came.

"Wait…you're a first year?" Chelsea asked me.

"Technically." I said shrugging. "I'll be going into my fifth year."

"Oh, ok…" Chelsea said apparently still trying to process what was going on. "That's the year we are in. So you're going to be sorted tonight?"

"I guess so." I said feeling uncomfortable by all of the questions tha I didn't really know all of the answers to. "What house are you three in?"

"Gryffindor. All of us." Alice said smiling. I only nodded, my mum had told me that Gryffindors are 'brave yet incredibly arrogant'.

"Where did you go to school before this?" Alice asked me.

"I was homeschooled." I said feeling my cheeks go red. I wasn't sure how they would react to that.

"So…you've never really been around people before have you?" Chelsea asked getting a small kick from Lily. "What?"

"Im sure she has been around people before." Lily said rolling her eyes at Chelsea. "It'll be nice to have a new face in our year." She said smiling. "Oh! I forgot, I have to go to the Prefect compartment!" She said standing up quickly and grabbing her things. "It was nice to meet you Isabella! And it was good to see you two…I'll catch up with you later." Lily said before exiting the compartment.

"What's a prefect?" I asked the two I was now left with in the compartment.

"They are students that help the younger students mostly." Chelsea said. "They also make sure ht estudents aren't misbehaving."

"Oh…" I said looking ou the window. The two of he girls stared heir own conversation leaving me to look out the window. I closed my tired eyes, for what I thgouthw ould only be a few seconds.

I felt something poking me in the side. I looked up and found Chelsea standing in front of me.

"We are here." She said poiting out the window. You could see in the distance the outline of Hogwarts castle.

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><p><strong>Let me know what you think! Is the writing better? Worse? Please tell me and I will attempt to approve! I, unlike other authors on here, love getting feedback, though I will say that there is a different between constructive critique and trolling. Thank you all for reading! LG :)<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**So here is the second chapter of the rewrite...these two chapters in the original story were suppose to be only one chapter I have a feeling the story will be much longer than before. XD Enjoy! ~**

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><p>"FIRS' YEARS THIS WAY!" I heard a booming voice from outside the train yell. During my attempts of seeing who was outside Chelsea's voice filled my ears.<p>

"That's your cue." She said, I had just noticed that they already changed into their uniforms.

"Good luck!" Alice called, just before closing the compartment door behind me. Standing outside my former compartment I took a deep sigh before making my way out of the train. All around me there were younger and, well, shorter first years waiting beside me.

"FOLLOW ME!" The same voice bellowed. I had been caught up with everyone around me that I failed to notice the enormous man standing only a few feet in front of me.

The kids around me began following him, so I followed close in suit. They seemed to have already gotten to know each other leaving me out of all of the small conversations that were going on around me. Though I was almost thankful for that.

We took a small boat ride to the castle which was incredible. Even though I despised the fact I was here, this was honestly one of the most amazing sights I have seen. You could see the castles lightened reflection off of the water, it was completely dark out but the light from inside the castle windows made it even more spectacular.

After the boat ride we made our way from the boathouse towards the castle itself. The walk there was pretty long but again the sights of the forest and seeing the famous Whomping Willow was worth it.

Finally we were inside of the castle; I guessed that during our trip to the castle the other students made their way inside having gone a much quicker route. You could hear the chatting and laughing from inside what was the 'Great Hall', one of the things my mother raved about.

"Good evening students; im professor McGonagall, I am the Head of Gryffindor house and Professor of Transfiguration. Welcome to your first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" A woman with a pointed witches hat and dark green robes said, emerging from the Great Hall doors. There were a few mumbles form the students around me.

"Now is the time you are sorted into Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin. Now when I call your name; you will make your way up to the front and sit on the stool. I will place the sorting hat on your head and it will sort you accordingly. Follow me." She instructed. The door opened where you could now see the entire Great Hall that was filled with students that were seated in four different tables. At the very front there was another table that seated what I guessed was the staff and teachers.

I could feel more than a few pair of eyes on me as I made my way down the aisle. I could feel my face go into a deep blush from all the unwanted attention on me. We found ourselves at the front of the Hall and waited for Professor McGonagall to read off the first name.

"Lawrence Anders" There was a small blonde boy next to me that seemed to freeze. Eventually he staggered up to the front and the hat was placed on top of his head.

There were a few moments of silence before the hat yelled out, "RAVENCLAW!" One of the tables began cheering causing the young boy to produce a large grin on his face as he hopped off of the stool.

I waited as the Professor named off several more names; I watched each student go from immensely nervous to cheery as they had gotten sorted. Finally, however, it was my turn.

"Isabella Rettington" I swear it was quiet enough to hear my heartbeat. Though at the pace it was going it wouldn't be too hard to hear. I walked through the few students that were left and made my way to the stool.

I turned for the first time to face the large room where now every pair of eyes were focused on me. I felt the hat placed on my head and I waited for something to happen.

"Hmm…very unique. A vampire am I correct?" A voice began speaking but it wasn't from one of the teachers…no, no, it was from the hat! The hat was talking! "A strong independent mind…witty no doubt. A mind that would make a decent Ravenclaw." I smiled slightly knowing my mother was a Ravenclaw, which was the one I had set my mind on. "And yet I find that another house would be better for a mind like yours…the house of GRYFFINDOR!"

One of the tables in the middle stood up and began cheering.

"You may make your way to the table, now." The Professor told me. I only nodded and slipped down from the stool. I headed over towards the table; I caught eyes with Lily who I had completely forgotten was in this house. She waved me over to sit with her, Chelsea and Alice.

I quickly headed over to that section of the table and took a seat beside the redhead. She only smiled before turning her attention back to the front to focus on the rest of the students being sorted.

After the last few a man stood up who I recognized as Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster at Hogwarts, make his way to the podium.

"I just want to give a warm welcome to those of you who are new here at Hogwarts and a welcome back to those of you returning. I have a feeling this will be a great year this year! I won't take up anymore time, enjoy the feast!" He announced before the platters in front of up lifted up to reveal an abundance of different kinds of food. There were chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, ham, bread, rolls, fresh fruits, and a variety of desserts, some I didn't even know the name of!

Before I knew it my plate was already full of food and I had begun shoving as much as I could into my mouth. I had only just realized that I hadn't eaten all day today.

"Hungry much?" I heard a voice ask from across the table. I assumed that was to me as I could easily say I had the most food on my plate. I peered up from my food to meet a pair of blue eyes gazing over at me. The only thing I could think of to do was shrug, I could feel my blush return however receiving a smirk from the curly black haired boy from across the table with the blue eyes.

"Evans are you gonna introduce us to your new friend?" The boy said looking over at Lily who seemed more than disgusted.

"Shut up, Padfoot, Lily how was your summer?" Another boy asked, he had round glasses and hair that looked very unruly. Or it was possibly made to look that way...

"Just ignore them." Lily whispered to me, as I swallowed a mouthful of food.

"Im Sirius Black." He said sticking his hand out towards me. I reluctantly shook it. "You are?"

"Isabella Rettington." I told him looking over at Lily who only rolled her eyes.

"Im James Potter…Lily's boyfriend." The boy with the glasses pushed his hand over towards me.

"I am NOT your girlfriend, Potter." Lily expressed, swiping his hand away before I could shake it. "Please just don't pay them any mind-"

"Don't pay HER any mind if you want to keep your sanity." A girl said who was sitting beside Sirius. She had long wavy dark brown hair with deep expressive blue eyes. "Im Tallulah Whittingham."

I could hear Lily groan and I swear I could almost sense another eye roll coming from her, even if I didn't directly see it. After that it was a pretty uncomfortably silence that formed around us. I didn't know what to do at this point, whether I should say something or just keep silent. Fortunately I didn't have to decide as Dumbledore excused us from the Great hall to get to bed.

I walked with Lily, who forced me to stay with her so she could show me herself the way to get to the common room. I spotted the others make their way passed us and run up to the room before Lily, myself and the first years could reach it.

She showed us the portrait that leads to the inside of the Gryffindor common room; the portrait is called 'the fat lady; which honestly there couldn't have been a better name picked. The password to get inside was 'Banana Fritters'. Something I would definitely remember.

"Once inside you will see-"Lily, sounding like a tour guide, stopped mid sentence. For good reason. After stepping inside the passage way immediately a green liquid poured down on top of her covering almost all of her red hair.

She let out a deafening scream; I could see James, Sirius, and Tallulah's faces from inside. They all had a different expression. Tallulah was overjoyed, Sirius was in shock, and James seemed…as if he might throw up or pass out...or both.

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><p><strong>Thank you to everyone who are new to reading the story and who are returning! Hope you will continue! :) LG<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Here is chapter three! Enjoy!**

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><p>Without any further hesitation Lily ran up the stairs to the right leaving a trail of the goop behind her. Careful I jumped over the green slime and helped a few of the first years as well. They all seemed a little shocked by what happened, a few were giggling a bit, but most seemed worried.<p>

"Ok boys up those stairs. Your dorm will be the first floor to the right. The girls up those stairs, though I would wait till the stairs get cleaned up…" Tallulah said still with a wide smirk on her face. The first year boys ran up to their dorm while the girls either made the decision to stand around down here or attempt to get upstairs without stepping on the trail.

"Want to sit with us?" Tallulah asked me walking over to the couch that was occupied by four boys; two of them I had already met during dinner.

"I should probably go see if Lily is-"I paused when I heard another scream from upstairs. "Um sure I could sit for a while…" I quickly said. I walked over to the last open spot in that area that was on the couch.

"I don't think we met im Remus Lupin." A boy with light brown hair said introducing himself from the opposite side of the couch.

"Isabella Rettington." I couldn't help but notice the scars on his face and arms, like from some sort of animal attack. I knew better than to ask about them.

"You going to introduce yourself Wormtail?" Sirius said messing up the blond boy's hair who was sitting on the floor by the fire.

"Peter Pettigrew." He said awkwardly to me before sending a glare Sirius' way. James was silent this entire time…he looked still as though he witnessed a murder.

"James I don't understand why you're still upset. Its not like it's going to stain her hair…oh wait." Tallulah said with a wicked grin on her face.

"I feel as if that was a best case scenario." Sirius said opening what looked like a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans. James' remained still for a few more seconds before he stood up, and pulled Sirius to the ground, knocking the beans out of his hands. I pulled my legs up onto the couch so they wouldn't be hit or kicked in their wrestling match.

"I should probably go check on Lily." I said while standing up onto the couch and stepping off over the back to avoid the fight. Everyone else was too involved in watching the fight and betting on who they thought would win, to notice me leave. Quickly I ran up the stairs being sure to watch out for the mess still on the stairs, some of the first year girls followed me up. I pointed to the room I figured they would be staying if it was anything like the boys dorm. I walked up two more floors before stopping at one I could hear loud angry mumbling.

"Lily?" I called; I followed the green trail to what was a bathroom at the back of the room.

"What?" A voice yelled back. I pondered whether I should go in there or not. After a few seconds of thinking it over I decided to step into the bathroom.

"It's Isabella?" I said in more of a question that a sturdy response. "Are you okay?" I asked her. I could see her continuing to wash her hair in a sink that was now a bright green color.

"I hate all of them." She said in a shaky voice. I could tell she had been crying over this, though I don't blame her. "Im going to report them. Tonight. Would you like to come?" She asked pulling her hair out of the sink now and ringing it out. She looked into the mirror and made a sound that could be mistaken for a crazed animal. Her hair was green from her roots to the back but on some of the sides her red natural hair poked through.

She let out another angry growl before starting the process of trying to rinse it out.

"Here let me help." I said grabbing a towel from the rack by the two showers. "Lily, seriously I can help. My mother taught me spell to change hair color."

After a few minutes of persuading her she finally turned the sink off and towel dried her hair. "What's the spell?" She asked still glancing over at the mirror.

"Just turn around." I told her with an assuring smile on my face. She closed her eyes and spun round so her back faced me. I pulled out the wand that was poking out of my back pocket and raised it towards her hair. "Colorvaria." I said waving my wand over her hair. I watched as the green slowly began to dissolve into a bright red color that it was to begin with. After a few seconds her entire head was back to normal, even dried.

"Ok now look." I said spinning her towards the mirror.

"You fixed it!" She squealed running her hands through her hair. "Oh, Isabella thank you!"

"You're welcome." I said with a wide smile on my face. "If you want you can call me Bella." I told her, as that was what my parents usually used. She gave me a small nod in reply. "Are you still going to go report them? If you do I think you should at least wait till the morning…it's pretty late." I said fighting off a yawn.

"I guess you're right…I will talk with McGonagall about it tomorrow. We have Transfiguration first." She told me leading me back into the main bedroom part of the dorm room.

"Hey." A voice called. Walking inside the door was Alice and Chelsea from on the train earlier today.

"Where have you two been?" Lily asked sitting down on what I figured was her bed.

"Downstairs. We're watching the two idiots fight but Remus finally stopped it." Chelsea said throwing a book bag on the bed besides Lily's'.

"Which bed is mine?" I asked looking at the three left.

"This is mine, and that is Tallulah's so I guess that would be yours." Alice said walking over to her own bed. I looked around at the bed closest to the door that would be now mine.

I sat down on my bed and opened up the dresser by it. There were sets of Gryffindor robes folded neatly inside. I also noticed my bags that I had packed this morning were shoved underneath the bed.

"Im going to change and go to bed." Alice said through a yawn. The rest of us did the same.

For the first night I slid into my new bed and pulled the blankets up to my chin and sighed. It was a bit odd sleeping in a room full of other people but I knew it was just something to get used to. Maybe things here at Hogwarts wouldn't be so bad…well that's if I don't get any of that green slime dumped on my head…~

It hadn't taken me very long to fall asleep my first night which was a surprise to me. Though I was the first one awake the next morning. Quickly I changed into my new robes and brushed my teeth and hair. I didn't feel like putting on any makeup since it was still fairly early, though I grabbed a few items and stuffed them into my book bag that I made before coming here filled with books, parchment and quills.

I threw my book bag strap over my shoulder and quietly headed out of the dorm room. I tiptoed down the stairs to make sure I didn't wake anyone else up and stepped into the common room. I had just noticed that the common room was fully cleaned from the green incident last night. It was also completely empty and quiet, which was a big different from what it was last night.

I exited the common room through the portrait without a word from the Fat Lady and headed down the stairs that, I somehow had failed to notice yesterday, moved. I made my way down to the first floor and walked down to the end of the corridor to find the hospital wing.

I could head talking from somewhere inside but could figure out where exactly.

"Hello?" I called out hoping for a response from someone. Immediately the talking stopped and two heads peered around the corner.

"Miss Rettington is it?" A lady, who I remembered as Madam Pomfrey asked making her way around the corner towards me. "Mr. Lupin I will see you tomorrow."

I could see Remus Lupin, one of the boys I had met from yesterday walk around her. He glanced up at me but immediately his gaze went down towards the floor as he exited the Wing.

She waited for him to close the door before she began talking.

"So you're here for you weekly medicine am I correct?" She asked me. I simply nodded and looked around the enormous room that was filled with sick beds and cabinets that im sure were filled with different healing potions and cures. Ever since I was younger I wanted to be a Healer. I found it amazing that these people could save others lives with a simple potion; it was always something I wanted to pursue when I was older.

She pulled out a tube of a light grey mixture and handed it to me. In one sip is I drank the entire tube, though in the process I held the tip of my nose to hopefully keep me from tasting it. The fowl taste has always caused me to gag…

"Come back next week and I will give you some more alright. Have a good day." She told me before waving me to head out of the Wing. She seemed nice...though a bit bossy.

I walked up the stairs and decided to head to the Great Hall as I figured I most likely wouldn't be able to find my way back to the common room. There were a few people inside, most of them at the table beside the Gryffindor one, I couldn't remember if it was the Ravenclaw house or Hufflepuff house.

Either way I sat alone at the table and grabbed a muffin, then pulled out some parchment to write a letter to my mom. Already I had a lot to tell her, all of the people I had met, everything that happened last night with Lily. Ok it wasn't much but I missed my mom severely. I had never been away from he this long before.

I wrote out a quick letter but right after wondered how I was supposed to even send this thing. I didn't have an owl…whenever I walked into the Pet Emporium at Diagon Alley all of the animals began to freak out and try to get out of their cages to get away from me. Apparently animals don't take to kindly to my kind.

I also wondered what Remus was doing so early at the Hospital Wing. Again it wasn't any of my business but I did have a good feeling it had to do with his scars.

I swallowed my last bit of muffin with a gulp of pumpkin juice and looked u from my parchment to see the entire Great Hall full of people. There were even people around me and I hadn't noticed it. Had I really been that deep in thought? Either way I noticed I had been sitting with a group of third years and moved further back to the fifth year section.

"Where's Lily?" I asked Tallulah who was reading the Daily Prophet.

"Don't know. Don't care." She said before flipping the page of her paper.

"I don't kow if you noticed at all but there is a bit of tension between those two." Chelsea said laughing a bit. "They got into a fight during their first year about one of Lily's friends-"

"See that guy?" Sirius asked pointing his finger towards the table behind me. I turned my head and looked around at the several students in that direction. "He has the long greasy black hair. That's her friend." He said laughing.

"Severus Snape." James added. I could tell which one it was now. He didn't seem like someone Lily would be friends with…seemed like the exact opposite.

After a half an hour of listening to James' discuss how he thought Quidditch was going to go this year, we were dismissed to head out to our first class. Like Lily had said last night, it was Transfiguration.

The four boys and Tallulah left before I did to head to class. Somehow I had gotten lost in the mix of the crowd of students that were leaving as I managed to lose Chelsea and Alice; there was still no sight of Lily either. I tried to push my way through to be able to find a familiar face but instead I ran directly into another student.

"Watch where you're going." He spat before knocking all of my books and parchment with my letter out of my hands. His friends that seemed to surrounded laughed as they walked away. I waited till most people left before picking up all of my things; now I had to sort of rethink my original thought about Hogwarts. Was this what it was really going to turn out like? Or was it just terrible luck?

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><p><strong>So this is definitely a longer chapter. Haha I hope you liked it. Thanks for reading! Hope you will continue... :) ~LG<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**Here 's chapter 4~ Enjoy**

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><p>I managed to find and follow a few straggling Hufflepuffs to the Transfiguration classroom. The entire classroom was filled with students, but the teacher wasn't inside yet. I stood in the back of the classroom trying to find a seat for myself. Everyone in Gryffindor had someone to sit with so there goes my chance of sitting with someone I knew. I let out a sigh and too a seat beside a Hufflepuff.<p>

I set down my books and now crumpled parchment on top of the table then pulled out a quill and ink. I looked around the classroom and waited for the teacher to show up; I did notice a grey and black striped cat sitting on the desk at the front. But that couldn't be…could it?

Once the clock hit 9 I watched the car jump off the desk and transform into who I remember as Professor McGonagall. She was wearing her usual green robes and pointed hat like she had been when I first met her yesterday.

"Good morning students, for our first lesson of the school year we will start out with learning about vanishing spells." She told us.

I tried to straighten out the wrinkles from the parchment and begin writing notes down from what she was saying. I dipped my quill into the ink and attempted to write all I could down.

I felt something poke me in the back of the neck causing me to jump. I turned around; James and Sirius were sitting behind me though they were writing down just as I had been doing. I shrugged it off and turned back to my parchment to continue writing. Again I felt the poke on the back of my neck. This time I could hear snickering from behind me. I turned my head around and saw them pretending to write once again.

"Miss. Rettington is there a problem?" Professor McGonagall asked me. I shook my head no and turned once more to the parchment.

I finished writing down the notes for today and picked up my wand to begin trying to vanish the snail I had on my table.

"Evanes-"I felt yet again another poke on the back of my neck. "STOP POKING ME!" I yelled turning around. They both had stupid grins on their faces that quickly left when Professor McGonagall stepped in.

"What is going on?" She asked looking from me to the two behind me.

"They keep poking me." I said sounding like I was five.

"We are not!" James argued. "We were happily working away on this brilliant assignment until you began yelling!"

"Potter, Black; please leave Miss. Rettington alone." The Professor said sending them a warning look before walking away. I gave them a fake smile and turned around to my snail that had been trying to escape this entire time. It was just by the edge of the desk when I grabbed it and set it back into the middle of the table.

It had been ten minutes of trying to make this stupid snail vanish when I noticed something land beside my snail; it was a crumpled piece of paper.

I set my wand down and grabbed it, unfolding it. Inside there was one word written in messy writing, 'POKE'. ~

After class I stuffed my books into my bag and stood u from my seat. Unfortunately there was already homework assigned for tonight, though I wasn't surprised. This was the year we would be taking our O.W.L's.

I began making my way out of the classroom alone before I felt someone latch onto my arm.

"Lily?" I asked realizing who it was. She pulled me out of the classroom and quickly away from everyone who was exiting behind us. "What's wrong? Where were you this morning?"

"I need your help." She said simply. "I want to get Whittingham and the Marauders back-"

"The Marauders?" I asked her.

"Those morons." She said pointing over her shoulder to where surprisingly the four boys were pushing their way through the crowd of people. "But will you?"

"Will I what?" I asked her feeling myself losing what she was even talking about.

"Help me get them back!" She said. "Please Bella?"

"Aren't you a Prefect? Couldn't you get into trouble?" I asked her walking with her now to our next class.

"They won't tell McGonagall…they wouldn't. They know they would get in trouble too for having started this." She said seeming still as if she was still trying to figure this out. "I don't know is this a bad idea?"

"Let's just…think it over." I told her as we entered the dungeons. I had a feeling I was going to get lost in these at some point.

"You're right…hey what was going on during last lesson?" She asked me.

"Honestly im not really sure…there was poking and then yelling. It all was a blur." I said running a hand through my hair. "What lass is this?" I asked as we walked further into the dungeons.

"Potions." She said brightly. We walked into the classroom to find a few Slytherin's and Gryffindors inside the classroom already.

"This class we always have assigned seating." She told me leading me towards the front of the classroom where there was a rather messy writing out seating chart.

"Great…" Lily said under her breath. "My partner is Black."

"I have no idea how to read this thing." I said turning my head to the side trying to find my name. "Oh here I am! Im mine is…James." Well at least he wouldn't be behind me this time.

"I'll show you where our seats are…at least we share the table potions station." She said making her way to the right of the classroom.

"WE HAVE ARRIVED!" A voice yelled form behind us; I turned my head to see James strutting into the classroom, Sirius beside him and the other two behind them.

"He is so obnoxious…" Lily said sitting down at our station. I took a spot beside her and looked over the cauldrons and ingredients we had at our table.

"Looks like we're going to be partners, Izzy." James said taking a seat beside me. "Can I call you Izzy?"

"I would prefer you didn't-"

"Well, im going to anyways." He said messing up his hair. "So what potion are we brewing?"

"Draught of Peace." I said having recognized all of the ingredients. I already had made this potion several times at home.

"Good morning, good morning students!" the teacher said announcing his presence as he made his way through the classroom. "Looks like you already found your assigned seating. For the first lesson today we are going to be brewing the Draught of Peace. We already discussed this potion at the end of last year so there is no need to go over it again." He said.

"The instructions are on the board, you may begin!" He said.  
>"That's Professor Slughorn." Lily whispered to me. "He is a bit-"<p>

"Mad?" Sirius said adding his own input. Lily said nothing in return to him she did send me a look before writing down the instructions. "You know you are going to have to talk to me at some point…we are lab partners!" He said. And yet again she said nothing.

I followed Lily in writing down the instructions before starting my potion.

"No don't add that." I told James as he was about to pick up the valerian root. "Don't add that either."

"Ok…so it looks like you know what you're doing. So I'll leave you alone." James said. I only rolled my eyes but I didn't argue back. I would rather work alone than work with him anyways.

After ten minutes of working on this potion it finally turned to the turquoise color. I smiled at finished potion and raised my hand.

"Ah! You must be Annabelle!"

"Isabell-"

"Good work! This potion is perfect; maybe this new partner will help you get your grades up, James!" He said patting James on the back before walking away.

"See, I told you. Mad!" Sirius said to me, causing me to laugh. He was definitely different, that Slughorn.

"I think sine we did such a good job on the potion-"

"I did a good job on the-"

"-we deserve a break. Chocolate frog?" he asked pulling out a few boxes.

"I feel as though I deserve it." I said smiling and grabbing one.

"Want one Lily?" James asked handing her a chocolate frog. Lily glanced up at it but quickly shook her head no at the offer. ~

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><p><strong>Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas let me know those as well. :) You can always leave me a review or even send me a PM. Thanks!~ LG<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**Enjoy~**

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><p>After the horribly long first day at Hogwarts, having no more run-ins with those Slytherin's, I found myself passed out on my dorm room bed.<br>"I hope you know that we have homework to do still." I could hear Lily said. I only groaned out of frustration, I had no desire to move from my bed, too be honest I wasn't sure whether it was possible at the time either. "Come on Bella! I'll help you! And we can also discuss our plan." She added whispering the end. I could tell she wasn't one who pulled pranks often.

But again I only groaned in response.

"IIIIIZZZZZZYYYYYYY!" I heard a voice holler from down in the common room. I groaned even louder this time knowing it was James wanting to work on our assignment, and of course by work I mean ME having to do everything while he sits there and messes up his hair.

"I realize you HAVE to work with him…but I would really try to avoid hanging around them too much." Lily said. "I don't want you to have bad influences like them or-"

"Lily." I said calmly cutting her off. "I will be fine. I will not fall into peer pressure." I assured her sudden parent-like attitude.

"Maybe when you're done with him we can work together?" She asked me as I finally pushed myself off of my bed.

"Sure." I said rubbing my eyes being thankful I had no makeup on today. "Aren't you coming? Don't you have to work with Sirius?"

"IIIIIIZZZZYYYYYYYY!" Another yell came from downstairs. Lily rolled her eyes.

"I already told him I would just do it." She told me shrugging. "Just go so he doesn't keep doing that, please?" I pursed my lips to keep myself from smiling and nodded.

I headed downstairs to find the four boys sitting around in their usual spot. Except this time Tallulah wasn't there, unfortunately she got paired with a Slytherin in Potions.

"Hi." I said making my presence known.

"There you are!" James said. "I thought you might've died."

"Yeah, that's definitely a reasonable thing to believe." I told him sitting beside him on the couch. "Now you do question 1 through 15 and I'll do 16 though 30."

"Can I do those ones? These ones are stupid." He said flipping through his own questions.

"Fine." I said trading papers with him.

"Wait never mind I like those ones better, let me have those back." He said having already looked over the new questions.

"Honestly I don't think you're going to be happy with anything you have to actually DO." I said snatching my original papers back.

"Wow, we met only 20 hours ago and you know me so well." He said patting me on the shoulder. I sent him a look that was similar to the one McGonagall gave him earlier and turned my attention back to my work. "Hey, um how is Lily by the way? She still seemed a bit mad at me-"

"Prongs, she has never not been mad at you. Yesterday was just something for her to really know that yes, she hates you." Sirius said working on something I had a feeling wasn't homework. "She did manage to get the green out of her hair surprisingly. Lala was working on that potion for the entire train ride to get it to stay."

"I helped her." I added in. "It wasn't a very hard spell to get out." No one said anything after that which made me feel more than uncomfortable. "You know," I started. "Im going to go upstairs."

"Bye, Izzy." James said, I turned around but knew I had to pick my battles. I ignored the nickname and continued my journey up the dorm room stairs.

"Hey, Lily." I said walking back into the dorm I had left maybe 5 minutes ago.

"That didn't take long." She told me laughing. "I thought you would last at LEAST 7 maybe 8 minutes."

"Yeah, well…" I said trailing off. I jumped onto my bed and spread out the papers so I could see every question. After writing out the first few questions I looked up towards Lily. "Why is it that you hate James? I mean he seems to like you-"

Almost as if preparing for this questions she began naming off a list of things ending with, "he's an arrogant toe-rag."

"Oh" Was all I could say back. Apparently there was a long history of this that I didn't exactly need to get into at the moment. "So…our plan? Is it still on?" She looked up at me with a smile.

"Of course! I have planned out a-"

"Hey-" Chelsea walked into the dorm now.  
>"Chels I need your help." Lily said in almost a pleading tone. "I need to get them back, please!"<p>

"The Prefect wants help with pranking someone? I don't know whether Dumbl-"

"Yes or no?" Lily asked cutting her off. "Well?"

"Sure." Chelsea said with a shrug. "Im already bored with school. What did you have in mind?" She asked looking from Lily to me.

"I want to get them the way they got me…but with a stronger spell." Lily said. "So they wouldn't be able to change the color like you did, Bella."

"Sounds reasonable…" Chelsea said sarcastically. "But what color?"

"Pink."

"Pink?"

"Yes, pink!" Lily argued. "It'll go nicely with the Gryffindor Quidditch jerseys." She said smirking.

"Oh that's right! Quidditch tryouts next week!" Chelsea said sitting on Alice's bed. "That'll give us a bit of time. But we'll still need to stay up pretty late each night to get it finished."

"How late?" I asked wondering if I should've gotten myself into this. I know I practically talked Lily into just a few minutes ago, but was getting back at James really going to stop anything? Was it really worth-  
>"OH IIIIZZZYYYYY?" I heard James yell once again from down stairs.<p>

"Never mind. I don't care if I have to stay up all night…I hate being called Izzy." I said wincing when I heard myself saying it.

"Good. Now Chels and I will begin planning it out while you go see what he wants…" Lily said. I let out a sigh and nodded.

"Fine!" I told her while getting up from my bed. I walked down the stairs to see the four, still in their exact same spots. "What?" I asked crossing my arms over my chest.

"How are you?" He asked looking over the couch at me.

"What?" I asked again.

"How. Are. You." He asked making sure he pronounced each word thoroughly.

"Is that why you called me down here?" I asked him walking closer to the couch.

"You seemed a little upset and I was wondering how- OW!" before he finished his sentence I slapped him over his head. "What was that for?" he asked rubbing the back of his head.

"That was for calling me Izzy." I told him smirking before walking up the stairs back to the dorm.

"What was-"

"Nothing. So what do you have so far?" I asked walking over to Lily's' bed. She handed me the 'recipe' for creating this…pink goop.

"We should add dung bombs to it!" Chelsea said laughing. "It'll add a nice touch."

"How are we going to get all of the ingredients?" I asked them looking over the list.

"Slughorns classroom." Chelsea said. "He never locks his classroom door or any of the ingredients."

"How do you know?" Lily asked her.

"Never mind that, but how about we go tonight?" Chelsea said looking at Lily.

"I can't…I have to watch the 2nd floor corridor tonight." Lily said shrugging.

"Ok, how about you and me Bella?" Chelsea looked up at me.

"I mean I guess we cou-"

"Great! I'll wake you up after everyone goes to sleep so we can sneak out." She said with a rather large grin on her face. She is enjoying this a little too much…

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><p><strong>Let me know what you think! If you have any ideas of your own please feel free to let me know in a review or PM! Honestly thank you so much to everyone who has saved this is their alertsfavorites and who has read/reviewed this story! I couldnt thank you all enough! :) ~LG**


	6. Chapter 6

**I had failed to say this on the first chapter so I guess I will do it now; the character Tallulah was created by TwilightHarryPotterStuff! Again thanks for sending her in! Also I would like to thank GirlWithABook for sending in an OC to me, and I apologize for not writing her as I should have. PM me if you would like to maybe see her featured in another story im working on. :)**

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><p>I had fallen asleep for possibly only an hour or two before Chelsea came to wake me up. I felt my shoulder being repeatedly tapped before my eyes shot open.<p>

"Bella…come on!" A voice whispered. I knew it was Chelsea by her blonde hair that was noticeable even in the dark. I groaned as I sat myself up in my bed and rubbed my eyes. A dark silhouette crossed the room towards the dorm room door, their hands failing for me to follow.

Still with my pajamas on I got out of my bed and followed her down the stairs to the common room. The fire was burnt out so it was completely black with the exception of the moonlight shining through giving me some hope of not tripping on anything in front of me.

She pushed open the portrait passageway and stepped a foot outside of the common room. Again she waved a hand for me to follow her. I tiptoed quickly to the passageway and like her stepped out of the portrait.

"Lumos" Chelsea whispered, the tip of her wand brightened. If only she would've done this sooner…

We walked down several of the staircases and down to the dungeons not saying a word to one another. I had wondered whether Lily was still out on her Prefect duties or back in bed. I hadn't thought to look before we left.

"Just in here" Chelsea said pushing open a familiar door, the Potions room door. At this point I wished I had brought my own wand with me so I wouldn't have to stand directly behind Chelsea as we walked.

"The potions are always in this cabinet." She told me walking over to the large wooden cabinet towards the front of the room. She pulled on the door handles a few times and let out a heavy sigh. "The ONE time he locks the potions up…" She huffed.

"Need some help, ladies?" I spun around practically tripping on my own feet as I did so. I could see anything in the darkness around me. Chelsea raised her wand towards the sound of the voice.

"What are you two doing here?" Chelsea asked realizing now that it was, oh great…Sirius and James. "You shouldn't be out of bed."

"And you two should?" Sirius asked raising an eyebrow and smirking. "I can't believe you are already teaching the newbie to sneak out past curfew."

"What are you two doing down here anyway?" James asked walking over towards the cabinet now.

"It's locked." Chelsea told him, that didn't stop him from attempting to force it open. "And we're getting some things to prank the Slytherin's, what about you two?" She asked coolly.

"Same" James said trying a few spells on the lock before shoving his wand back into his robe pocket. "They're already running their mouths about Quidditch this year so we figured we'd brew something that might help them shut them."

"What'd you say, how about we go get some food from the kitchen?" Sirius asked shrugging clearly not that worried about not pranking the Slytherins as James was.

"That sounds splendid, Padfoot." James said with a broad smile on his face, patting Sirius on the shoulder. "Would you ladies like to join us?"

"We should get back to bed before Fil-"

"Sounds like a yes to me." Sirius said looking over at James. "It might get a bit packed under the cloak but it'll have to do..."

"Cloak?" I asked looking at the thing in James hands.

"Invisibility cloak to be more specific." James said throwing it over himself, he had completely disappeared!

"That's incredible…" I said trailing off watching as he pulled it off of himself. Before anyone said another word I was pulled into what felt like an uncomfortable group huddle and watched the cloak be draped over all four of us.

I was sandwiched between Sirius and James as we made our way through the dark castle. it was a long journey to the kitchen, I kept tripping over everyones feet even causing James to fall a few times. Finally we made it to the kitchen, James seeming more excited about this than anyone. I felt the cloak being pulled off as we walked further into the kitchen. There were still mounds of food spread out everywhere on the counters. James, Sirius and Chelsea all had their wands out to use as light as we each grabbed some food to eat. I had grabbed a piece of cake and some popcorn and began happily munching away.

"So what are you two really doing?" James asked jumping up on the counter to sit. "Are you helping Lily get us back?"

I choked a little on some popcorn and looked up at Chelsea who seemed just as thrown off by the question as me.

"Who told you?" She asked sounding stunned.

"Who do you think?" Sirius asked. "Tallulah of course! She has that room bugged pretty much…"

"Lily is going to be mad." Chelsea said looking glumly over her cake.

"Look you can still let Lily prank us." James said.

"What?" Sirius asked. "She is not going to be turning my hair pink!"

"Its only fair-"

"Like hell it is!" Sirius said cutting James off.

"He is very protective of his hair." James told me causing me to laugh a bit. "Here is the deal; we'll let you prank us… only if you promise to help us get the color out." I looked over at Chelsea who seemed to be thinking this over.

"You can't tell Lily we're doing this." She told me, I only nodded. "Fine, deal."

"Per-"He paused when he heard footsteps from outside the door. "Under the cloak!" He ordered. Sirius grabbed onto my arm and pulled me underneath with him, James and Chelsea. They all whispered "nox" before we watched the door creek open. An older looking man peered inside looking all around the room before closing the doors and locking them.

The cloak was pulled off once again.

"That was Filch." Sirius told me.

"He locked us in!" James said trying to open up the kitchen door. "What're we going to do?"

"Unlock it?" Sirius said walking over to him. "Alohomora." Sirius said, you could hear the door handle click.

"Right…" James said trailing off still looking down at the door handle. "That was close."

"Let's go back." Chelsea said walking over to them, me behind her. "It's getting late."

"Fine" James said opening up the door. Again we squeezed ourselves underneath the cloak as we made our way back up to the common room, even having yet another close call with Filch.

After making our way through the portrait passageway, we felt safe enough to come out from under the cloak.

"That was fun." James said ruffling up his hair. "Let's do this again."

"Right…" Chelsea said sarcastically. "Well, let's go Bella." She said just before tiptoeing up the staircase.

"Goodnight." I told them before following Chelsea's path.

"Goodnight Bella" A voice whispered from downstairs to me. I assumed it was Sirius only because the name 'Izzy' wasn't involved. Honestly after all the bad things I had heard about these boys from Lily I had yet it come across any of them. Maybe I should give it a few weeks before I make that judgment. But I couldn't help but like them. I mean they were even going to let us prank them to make Lily happy. Yes, it does seem a bit suspicious I won't lie…but they seemed to be genuine. At least James did anyway. Sirius still seemed a bit reluctant about ruining his hair.

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><p><strong><strong>Let me know what you think! I just got my Tumblr account up so if you want to check it out and ask me or any of my characters any questions feel free to stop by! The address is on my profile~<strong>Thanks for reading- LG**


	7. Chapter 7

**Enjoy~~~**

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><p>The next three days James, Sirius, Chelsea and I snuck out to gather up the supplies for this 'prank'. I felt awful doing all of this behind Lily's back. I mean I knew in the long run she would be happy with what would happen, James, Sirius and the rest of them getting the horrible goopy pink stuff dumped on them…but I really hoped she wouldn't find out that we're planning this with them. I mean what else were we going to do? I guess we could've just told her they knew the plan…but Chelsea said that would only make her go more insane. Though honestly I didn't think that was possible. I liked Lily, she was fun to talk with, but she did seem rather stressed out. I had guessed the responsibility of being a prefect and having to worry about the O.W.L's this year was a lot more than she thought. If I had to pick I would say through my very first week at Hogwarts, Lily was the one I was closest to. Chelsea was nice, but she was a little more aggressive for my taste. I mean I don't usually prank people, or get into trouble for that matter, like she did. She was more like the boys but she reminded me several times that she wasn't very good friends with any of them.<p>

The boys seemed to be…different. Like I had said before, I didn't like or dislike them, though I found them to be rather funny. I have no choice of whether or not I want to be around them anyway, most of my classes left me with them either behind me or me partnered with one of them.

Tallulah was nice as well, I haven't been able to talk with her too much but the time I had she seemed funny. Though she always managed to steer the conversation into how I shouldn't hang around Lily. But I couldn't dislike her for that, Lily would do the same with her…it was rather annoying, really. I mean I realize that they had their fights earlier in their time at Hogwarts but I couldn't see where it would lead to anything like this.

Lily, sometime during the upcoming weekend, wanted me to meet her friend Severus. The one the 'Marauders', the Gryffindor boys, and Tallulah bully all the time. I couldn't see where he would be so bad that they would feel the need to hang him upside down for an hour or lock him in a broom closet; some of the many stories James would tell me during Potions class.

It was a Monday morning, the following morning would be the day Chelsea, Lily and I would pull this prank. Like I had said, Chelsea, Sirius, James and I had been staying up the last few nights working on this 'concoction'. You might be wondering why I would spend my own timing helping out someone I barely knew with people I barely knew on something that could very easily get me into trouble. Honestly I wouldn't know how to answer that. I don't know why I was helping. It was fun for me to be doing something like this, something a bit reckless rather than being a the 'perfect child' for my parents. I never really had an option to do anything like this so I guess I was just making the most of a situation.

Walking down into the Great Hall with Lily, we took out usual spot at the Gryffindor table, making sure to sit a few feet away from the other fifth years for Lily's sake.

"Im really sorry for not helping out with the prank, Bella." She told me. "I mean it doesn't seem fair! You shouldn't have to do all of this work-"

"Its fine Lily im having fun!" I told her smiling. "I mean I didn't to get to do this very often back at home." She sent me a small smile.

"Thanks Bella…im really glad you came here. I was sort of getting tired of the others..." She said glancing over to the others.

"Sort of?" I asked giggling. "But im happy im here too." I told which surprised me a bit. I mean only a few days ago I was dreading the idea of coming here and now I was thankful for it. "I'm not sure how long I'll be here though. My mum told me I would only be here for the year."

"Why are you here?" She asked me. "I mean why did your parents decide to send you here now?"

"Work" I told her, getting an understanding nod back from her. That was a horrible lie; of course it wasn't because of them working. My mum didn't even have a job; then again I suppose Lily doesn't know that. I guess that couldn't be a complete lie, I mean I did overhear my parents talking about this being about the Ministry, which is where my father works. So perhaps there is some truth in that.

"Have you gotten all of the work done for school? Honestly I think im a bit behind…but hopefully not by much." She told me.

"I think I have most of it done…homework has been brutal this first week." I told her taking a sip of my pumpkin juice. She only shrugged.

"It'll get worse when the exams draw nearer." She said staring down at her food. "But the upcoming weekend will be a nice break."

"Hey, Bella!" A voice called, it was Tallulah. She was waving me over, as she stood up from the table and began walking down the aisle.

"I'll talk to you later, Lil." I told her standing up from the table. She nodded, not saying anything back. She knew though I had a project I had to work on with Tallulah. I met up with her at the very end of the table, the boys were behind her. "Hey" I said with a smile as I approached the group. "Did you need help with your questions?"

"No. I just thought I should save you from having to sit with her." Tallulah said, her heading motioning over to where Lily is. I only rolled my eyes, I was about to say something back but I was cut off by Sirius.

"Did you two hear about the Homecoming Ball?" Sirius asked throwing an arm around both Tallulah's and my shoulder.

"A 'Ball'?" Tallulah asked pushing his arm off of her. "Do they expect us to go? Or…"

"Come on Lala, it'll be fun!" Sirius said playfully ruffling up her hair. She slapped his hand away then began fixing it.

"Im planning on asking Lily to go…hey, Izzy maybe you could put in a good word for me?" He asked pushing Sirius out of the way to stand beside me.

"I don't know..." I said not knowing what to say. "I don't think she is going to go."

"She'll have to seeing as though she's a Prefect." Remus said out of nowhere, I hadn't realized he was here. "That's why I have to go."

"She would probably go with Snivellus anyway, James." Sirius assured him. "What about you…are you going?" He asked looking over towards me. I only shrugged my shoulders and looked out ahead of me. Honestly I didn't want to, I mean who wants to go to those things alone? Being of course that I doubted anyone would ask me to go with them. I listened in as the rest of them talked away about the Quidditch tryouts coming up; Tallulah mentioned that we would need to have the prank ready the day before. We were practically done with it all, only needed to add the coloring into it which would only take a few more hours, then it would be ready by morning. ~

Like usual after it was time to go to bed, I spent at least an hour and a half lying in bed waiting for the right time to get up. I kept a watchful eye on the clock beside me and when it hit midnight that was when I knew it was the right time. Honestly I wasn't sure why I needed to wait so long. I mean both sides knew what was going on, both sides meaning Lily's group and the Marauders, the whole point of waiting till later was so we wouldn't accidently wake or run into any of them.

I tiptoed out of the dorm and down the stairs making sure to not wake any of the other Gryffindors from any of the other years, after a few more strides I found myself in the common room, but unlike the other times there was a fire lit.

I could see a silhouette sitting on the couch, I even thought about going back up for a few moments, but decided to see who it was. Fortunately it was a good decision on my part since it did turn out to be Sirius, but only Sirius. This struck me as odd since usually it was Chelsea, Tallulah, Sirius, James and I working on it together.

"Hi" he said in a much louder voice than I would have liked.

"Hello" I said wrapping my robe around myself tighter as I walked around the couch. "Where is everyone else?"

"Sleeping." He said staring blankly at the cauldron in front of him. "Quidditch tryouts tomorrow."

I only nodded my head as if I understood, but truth be told I was actually incredible angry at the lot of them. I mean this wasn't exactly my idea to be doing this…this was all of us working together. They seemed to have forgotten that whole together part of the plan.

"Why are you here?" I asked him, I mean if James wasn't down here helping why would he be? Even if he wasn't trying out for Quidditch he didn't seem like the 'helping' type.

"Figured I shouldn't leave you down here alone." He told me shrugging. "We should probably get this finished soon though before it gets too late."

"Guess so..." I said trailing off. I took a seat beside him on the couch and opened up the box Sirius had that had the potions we needed, I picked up the small vile with the pink liquid in it and evenly poured it around the cauldron before stirring it counterclockwise eight times. You could see pink bubbles rising up from the cauldron and popping midair, leaving a horrible stench behind.

"Is that it? Are we done?" he asked looking at me.

"No…now we have to wait an hour then add tha-"I was cut off mid sentence by a yawn but I pointed towards the other bottle in the box filled with a clear liquid. This was what was going to help get the color out quicker than it would have for Lily's.

"Ok then we'll wait." He said throwing his arms over the backside of the couch. I only nodded and leaned back against the arm rest of the couch. "We should probably hide this though in case anyone comes down here."

I helped him slide it off of the table and hide it behind one of the several chairs in the common room, making sure it would be hidden well. Again we sat back down on the couch and waited.

"So" he started moving his position to leaning against the other arm rest of the couch so we were now facing each other. "What brings you here to Hogwarts?"

"Well, my father works for the Ministry, but apparently he and my mother have to-" I paused when I heard him fake snoring, I kicked his leg a bit causing him to 'wake up'.

"What? What happened?" He asked rubbing his eyes as if he actually was asleep.

"You're so stupid" I said laughing.

"Im just kidding keep going; your mother and father have to what?" He asked folding his arms over his chest. Honestly I don't know how exactly to answer that…I mean I was sort of making up this story as I went along.

"Never mind" I said shaking my head, still with a grin on my face.

"Come on, I was only joking! Just tell me, look I'll be quiet, just wait. Ok go." He said, his facial expression turned from a smile to a stern, intense look. I merely stared at him, trying myself to keep my composure with my own 'intense face' but only after a few moments did I break into laughter. "Come on im being serious!" he laughed, but for some reason this only made me laugh harder, and well, louder, causing Sirius to have to throw a pillow at me, as if this would somehow help my laughing situation.

After a few seconds of calming down and regaining some sort of composure he asked me, "How long has it been?" I turned my head towards the clock.

"Seven minutes." I told him, wow, I would have put money on it being at least twenty. "I can wait down here, you can go to bed." I told him.

"Nah its fine." He told me. "I'll just sleep down here." He threw his legs up onto the couch causing them to land on me. "Good night, Bella."

"Wait are you actually going to sleep?" I asked, without opening his eyes he nodded. "Well, if you're sleeping down here then I want to sleep too!"

"Only one of us can sleep" He told me. "And that one will be me." Without another word I closed my eyes, throwing his legs off of me and getting into somewhat of a comfortable position. This was now turning into a game of who could fall asleep faster, and I had a good feeling I could win at this game. ~

"Oh god!" I woke up immediately after hearing a voice around me. My eyes shot open, only to have them close within a few moments due to the light pouring in to the…common room? I fell asleep in the common room?

"What's going on?" I mumbled trying to open my eyes to see who had been talking, perhaps it was one of my dreams.

"Really? Is this really happening?" The same voice asked though it seemed to be fading away.

"Where am I?" Another voice asked, I opened my eyes immediately after I felt something move beside me. My eyes shot over towards where the movement was, and what I found was, well, awkward to say the least. Beside me lay a shirtless Sirius who seemed to still not know where he was, that wasn't the most awkward part of it either, no, it was the whole me lying almost completely on top of him.

I jumped off of him, throwing my hands up into the air, as if a sign that I didn't do anything. I looked up to see James pacing around the room in a Quidditch jersey.

"I see you slept well last night." He said in a sarcastic voice, his arms were folded across his chest, I swear he sounded and even looked like my mother when she was angry. "Did you finish the potion?"

The potion! I didn't wake up to finish it in time! I slapped my hand onto my forehead, "No…" I told him trailing off.

"I did" I looked up to see Sirius finally realizing what was going on. "I stayed up to finish it."

"What? Why didn't you wake me up?" I asked him.

"You were sleeping" He told me shrugging.

"Wait…" I paused. "If you were awake why didn't you just go upstairs and sleep? And why did you take off your-" I paused and could feel my face turn a deep, deep shade of red. I let out a groan, one that sounded very similar to Lily's and headed upstairs to the dorm room. This day couldn't be starting off any worse. And if you can believe it…it only got about, well, a thousand times worse later.

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><p><strong>Soooo yeah hope you liked it! :D Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading and for all of the alerts, favorites, and reviews! You all are AMAZING~ LG<strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**Here is the next chapter~ Enjoy!**

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><p>It was the first class of the day today, this was the class Chelsea and I made sure to be early to. It was only us in the Transfiguration classroom, there was no sign of McGonagall either, Chelsea guessed she was still down in the Great Hall as well.<p>

"I'll levitate it, while you keep a look out, okay?" Chelsea said, as we set the heavy cauldron down beside the door, in response I nodded. It was ten minutes till class, very few students began to ease their way in, a couple Slytherin's, most seemed to have paid the floating cauldron over the door no mind. Finally Lily came in, I motioned my head up above the door, she glanced up at it and I could see a smile grow on her face.

"They're coming" She told us. "I could see them coming around the corridor." This was when I decided my job was about to begin, watching for the four boys to come around the corner. It was a few minutes before I saw the four appear from around the wall, like always James was standing ahead of the rest of, Sirius not too far behind him, followed then by the other two, Peter and Remus. James sent me a thumbs up, I nodded and slid back inside.

"They're coming. " I told her, having her get ready for the drop. From what I could see they were the only ones even coming down the hall, I knew this way at least there wouldn't be any other victims of the pink goop.

We waited for a few minutes; I was even about to peak out to see what was taking them so long before I saw a figure coming in. I watched as the potion inside the cauldron poured in one think stream, out and onto someone, only one person. Which one did we get? I wondered whether or not James tricked Peter into going first…or even Remus. I turned to Lily who seemed to be thinking the same thing I was, the pink seemed to have dyed not only their hair but their robes and books as well.

James came wandering around the corner of the door, jumping over the puddle of the pink, then came Sirius…and then Remus…and…Peter?

"If you're all there then who did we"

"SEVERUS!" Lily screamed as she ran over to the pink covered boy who hadn't seemed to move one bit after it happened. James and Sirius looked as though they pass out from laughter as they watched who I now realize was Severus Snape, try to get the concoction off of him.

"We had a deal!" Chelsea said walking over to James, shoving him in the chest. "You agreed to have it happen!"

"And we were going to go through with it!" James said, still snickering. "But then we saw Snivellus and we got an even better idea."

"YOU PLANNED THIS?" Lily asked, walking over to all of us, her hands dyed a light pink from attempting to help Severus. "YOU MADE A DEAL WITH THEM?"

"Lily, they caught us when-"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?" She yelled, not even letting Chelsea finish her explanation. Lily then turned to me, though I lowered my head so I wouldn't have to meet her eyes. "I CANT BELIEVE YOU HELPED THEM AND NOT-"

"What is going on here?" Another voice asked, we all looked around Lily to see Professor McGonagall walking in, lifting her robes a bit so the pink mess wouldn't get on them. "Who is the culprit behind this?" She asked looking from Severus to our group. "Ms. Evans, please tell me you weren't apart of this. If you were, they'll have your badge for this."

"Professor, I-"

"I did it Professor." I said, though im not exactly sure why. It just sort of flew out of my mouth…I suppose it was mostly my fault, even if it was Lily's idea. I did make the potion after all.

"Me too, Professor." Chelsea said from somewhere behind me. "Lily had nothing to do with it."

"Well, I see" She started "Mr. Ryder, would you escort Mr. Snape to the Hospital Wing?" A Slytherin boy nodded and stood up from the table he was sitting at. She turned her attention back to us, "You four had nothing to do with it?" She asked the boys behind Chelsea and I.

"James and I did, Professor." What I can only assume was Sirius' voice said.

"Shut up" James whispered to Sirius.

"You four will have detention for the next two weeks." She said, I knew that was coming. "Also, fifty house points-"

"You're taking away fifty?" James groaned.

"You didn't let me finish, . Fifty _each._" She said, this wasn't what I expected to happen. "Your detention will begin after classes today. You four will be in the Potions room sorting flobberworms, im sure Professor Slughorn will be delighted to have you help out." She said, looking at each one of us before telling us to take our seats.

I noticed Tallulah sneaking into the classroom behind us as we took our seats, fortunately she didn't get caught due to the fact McGonagall was probably more than caught up with what had happened with Severus and the pink goop…

I sat down, feeling more than upset about what had happened, more so about having to tell my parents what happened than the detentions themselves. ~

After my final class for the day, Herbology, I reluctantly left to head back to the Potions classroom, I walked alone to the dungeons to find I was the first one there. I looked at the clock and realized I was a few minutes early, I took a seat in one of the first chairs I could find and waited, at the front of the classroom on the board was a note form Slughorn. He explained where the flobberworms were, the point of this was to sort the good ones from the bad. I waited a few more minutes before Chelsea finally showed up, followed a minute or two later by Sirius and James, who seemed to be more than angry with everything.

"We just had to tell McGonagall." James started already. "You realize im missing the first Quidditch tryouts, right?"

"Will you shut it?" Sirius told him, probably having heard it hundreds of times throughout the day. "The quicker we get this done the quicker we can leave."

"I don't even know why im here! I didn't do anything!" James said, taking a seat at a table across the class. "Its you two who should be in trouble!"

"Excuse me, im not the one who changed the plans! If you hadn't done that then none of us would be here!" Chelsea snapped back.

"Did you really believe that I, James Potter, would let someone prank me and not do a thing about it?" James asked, Chelsea was silent, probably feeling slightly dumb for believing him.

"Did you really think that not letting us prank you would help you with Lily?" I asked him.

"Lily wouldn't have known we had helped you if _she_ hadn't said anything-"

"I said something because you went back on your deal!" Chelsea yelled back at him.

"Its no use, Chels, just ignore them." I said pulling her into the chair beside me. "I'll get the flobberworms…"

I stood up and began walking towards the bucket of flobberworms at the front of the desk; I grabbed both the bucket with the fowl smelling creatures squirming inside, and an empty one.

"Im sorry" A voice said from behind me said, causing me to jump a little. I spun around to see Sirius who seemed to be trying this best to force away a smirk on his face.

"For what?" I asked, keeping my tone steady and stern, a lot like Lily's.

"For…err, this." He said, standing beside me now, grabbing a bucket of his own. "Getting you into detention and what not."

"And what not…" I repeated laughing a little. "Look its fine, it was bound to fail anyway."

"Why do you say that?" He asked, following me.

"I doubted that your guys' idea would go through properly." I told him, I myself was trying to hide the smirk growing on my face. "It just seemed…too basic."

"Basic?" He asked, scoffing at the very word. "We're the slightest bit _basic_." He paused for a little bit. "Are you challenging us, Rettington?"

"Im not doing anything!" I said setting down the two buckets on the table, and then turned to him. "But if you're offering a challenge-"

"We're always up for a challenge." Sirius said interrupting me mid sentence. "Rules? Bets?"

"Rules…no pranks that could get us into trouble." I said hinting to Chelsea who seemed more shocked by this newly made duel between the girls and the boys than I was.

"Deal, that goes for us too."

"As for bets…" I paused thinking over what would be a good thing if we won.

"You have to do our homework for an entire month. And you have to actually _try_." Chelsea said cutting in, apparently she was getting more into this idea now. "Oh and trying isn't forcing a Hufflepuff to do it for you."

"Fine, deal." Sirius said, looking over at James who merely glared at him. I guessed he only had Quidditch on his mind at the moment. "For us…you have to do our laundry for a month."

"Thats disgusting" Chelsea said with a scrunched up nose.

"Fine." I said simply. Sirius and I shook hands before turning back to our punishment for the…first prank we did. Truth is I have no idea what came over me in those few minutes…just being here with other kids my age, getting to do everything they get to do was exciting to me. I never got to do this while I was at home, I mean im only going to be here for a year…if that! What harm could this prank war possibly do?

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><p><strong>What do you think about Bellas sudden attitude change? Anyway let me know what you think! Thanks so much for reading~ LG<strong>


	9. Chapter 9

**Here is chapter nine. I wish I could read the original version of this story, but since I just got done moving the USB drive is lost somewhere in the several boxes stacked in my room...im doing my best to remember to sort of keep a familiar tone fo the story. Anyway I hope you all like it. Let me know what you think~**

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><p>The next few days were filled with planning with Chelsea, rolling my eyes at James and Sirius, and avoiding Lily's glares that she would send every so often. I had detention every night, still sorting flobberworms, but for some reason it was actually sort of fun, though it did manage to even become a competition at times, of who can sort more flobberworms in a minute. James was able to make it to the second tryouts for quidditch, giving him a very good chance of once again being apart of the team.<p>

I had written my mum every other day, but not once have I gotten a letter back. I wondered whether she even got one of them or if she was worried about sending anything about, and the Ministry getting a hold of it. For the third time since I have been in Hogwarts I went down early Friday morning to receive my potion, like the other two times before when I came down to the Hospital Wing, it was empty.

"You're late" Madam Pomfreys voice came from behind me, probably having been inside of her office.

"I know…I just slept in today." I told her, which was in fact true, those detentions were really doing a number on me sleep-wise. Usually I had been in bed early, even after I came here, but now my time was slightly off, but I suppose that is my own fault.

"Here you are" She said, handing me my potion, like always closing my eyes and wincing, waiting for the foul taste to hit my tongue. "I will see you next Friday; on _time"_

I nodded, surpressing a smirk on my face, and turned around to head out of the Wing. I made my way down to the Great Hall to find Lily already up and ready for the day, the others were nowhere to be found, though again that was common as they were late sleepers. Especially Sirius and James.

"Hi, Lily" I said, gaining her attention as I took a seat across the Gryffindor table from her. She glanced up at me for a few moments before her gazed returned to the book for Transfiguration in front of her. "Ok" I murmured to myself as I grabbed a plate of my own and began piling food on.

"Shouldn't you be talking with your _friends_" She asked bitterly from behind her book, a smile snuck onto my face, and I shrugged.

"I don't know, its sort of hard to do when their face is constantly being blocked by books" I told her, pushing my food around my plate. She lowered the book so all I could see were her light green eyes, "and you should know that im fairly certain James and Sirius cant even read, so that should make it a bit easier to pin point who im talking about"

Lily merely closed her book, setting in onto the table in front of us and stared at me, "Are we ok now?" I asked her, trying to break this awkward tension between us, most of it created by her.

"On one condition" She started, glancing at the table behind her before turning back to me. "Apologize to him?" I looked over her shoulder at the boy who had just sat at the Slytherin table, Severus Snape, the one who was victim to the pink goop.

"Of course" I said with a single nod, knowing I probably should have done it much sooner, I think with both homework and the detentions, I was fairly busy.

"Great" She said with a smile, standing up immediately from the table, "lets go then-"

"Cant I finish my-" I paused, looking down at my half eaten sausages and eggs, then back up to her, "Fine…lets go." I swung my legs over the bench of the seats and began making my way towards the teachers tables, where only a few were eating, before walking around to meet Lily.

As we walked over to the Slytherin table, I couldn't help but feel several pairs of angry eyes on me. I smiled at one of them, only getting a very ugly look in return before turning back to the people around them. I shrugged it off, having heard about the Slytherins and Gryffindors 'feud' from practically everyone I have talked with about Hogwarts; even my own mother.

"Sev!" Lily called, the greasy haired boy looked up, not a single hint of pink was on him anymore, and he reluctantly smiled. She waved him over to her, having him get a few jeers from his friends he was sitting with, finally he pushed himself away from the table to come talk with us, well, more likely Lily.

He said not a word as he approached us, having seen me, and quickly looked my way before his eyes went back onto Lily.

"This is-"

"Im Isabella Rettington" I said, cutting off Lily, sticking my hand out towards him, only to have him deny a handshake. I let my arm fall to the side, realizing if I was in his situation…I would hate me too. "I just wanted to tell you that im really sorry about what happened the other day" I told him, looking over at Lily midway through making sure she approved of this apology.

"Its fine" He muttered finally, I only nodded, of course not really knowing what to say in return. "Is that all?" He asked, Lily, who seemed just, if not more uncomfortable with this conversation.

"Um actually I was going to see if-"

"Snape!" A voice from behind Lily and I took the attention of Severus, catching mine and Lily's as well. Our heads turned to see another, but much older, Slytherin boy. "I thought we talked about you talking to her?" He asked, getting only a few feet away from us, and if you can believe it Severus' face got even paler. "There is no need for your kind around here, Evans" He spat, walking now in front of Severus, blocking our view of him. His glare switched from Lily, who was beet red from what im sure was anger rather then embarrassment which was what mine was from. If possible there was more attention on us then ever, due to this scene he was crudely causing. "What're you suppose to be?" He asked looking at me.

Not really knowing what to say to answer that question I mumbled out "I don't know" I was never one for confrontation…

I felt yet another figure push themselves past me, actually a few, "Piss off, Burke" One of them said, a hand grabbed onto my wrist, leading me away from the situation.

"You're so brave, aren't you Potter, while the room is filled with teachers?" The older boy laughed, Sirius, who was the one pulling me away, called James to follow. He was currently in a staring contest with the Slytherin, Sirius finally dropped hold of my arm to go and get James, Lily in the mean time stormed off from the situation, I quickly followed.

"Lily!" I called, going into a jog behind her trying to catch up with her pace. "Where are you going?"

"Can you believe them?" She finally asked, throwing her hands up. "I mean I was perfectly fine, I don't need a 'savior' every time im in a situation like that."

How could she be mad at James and Sirius while that Slytherin was practically about to call her…well, the name used to insult Muggleborns? I didn't actually ask that question aloud, I just got back on her good side and I didn't need that to be short lived.

"Has anyone asked you to the Homecoming Ball?" I asked her drastically changing the subject.

"What? Oh…no. I don't if I can bring a date..you know im supposed to be supervising and what not…" She trailed off before starting up again a few moments later. "What about you?"

"Nope." I said simply, letting out a small laugh after the fact. "I don't think im going."

"You have to go!" She said. "Even if you don't have a date, it will still be fun!"

"I suppose-"

"Isabella?" I turned around, my stomach churning, hoping it wasn't any Slytheirns that followed us out of the Great Hall, instead I was surprised to see a Ravenclaw, in our year, behind us. Andrew Garrett.

"Oh, hi" I said, smiling, I honestly hadn't realized people knew my name. I mean I know the teachers announced my name in each of my classes the first day to introduce me, but I hadn't thought any one was actually listening.

"I was wondering if you, if you didn't have a date or, not a date, was going with anyone…um, to the Ball?" He asked, glancing behind him at two other Ravenclaw boys, who were laughing, before his eyes returned to mine, his face turning pink.

"Oh…really?" I asked, looking at him then to Lily, who was pretending as if she wasn't listening when I knew very well she was. "Um…yeah! Thanks!"

Thanks? Did I really thank him for asking me?

"Cool" He said, nodding, looking at the floor. "I'll see you then?" I nodded, feeling my face turn into a deep red, before turning away from him.

"That was fast" Lily stated, with a broad smile. "He's cute"

"I guess…" I said, smirking, but he was, in fact, cute. "Now we have to find you a date"

"I'll be fine" She assured me, "This weekend we can go get dresses together, maybe take Chelsea and Alice"

As we made our way into the History of Magic classroom there I could hear footsteps running up behind us, "Wait, Bella!" I poked my head outside the door to see Sirius, James and a very out of breath Peter just outside. "Can I talk to you?" I nodded, closing the door behind me.

"Hey Izzy is Lily in the classroom yet?" James asked, I reluctantly nodded wondering what he was going to do to put her in another foul mood. I watched him and Peter make their way inside the classroom to find Lily before turning to Sirius.

"Yeah?" I asked him.

"I was trying to talk to you in the Great Hall, but you vanished" He said letting out a small laugh. "I was just wondering if you wanted to go to the Ball? With me?" I felt my face flush a bit, having him notice as well. "I mean as friends, not like as a real date or anything." He quickly added.

"Actually someone just asked me to go with them." I told him, with a nod.

"What?" he asked, sounding a bit shocked. "Who?"

"Andrew Garrett"

"That Ravenclaw?" He asked me, I just nodded in response. "Well, I was just asking to see if you'd go with me…you know its just sort of a last resort thing-"

"Last resort?" I scoffed. "Like that would be the only way I could be asked, as if I was the only option left."

"Bella, that's not what I meant-"

"No, I know what you meant. Thanks, but no thanks, I'd rather go with that jerk of a Slytherin than you." I turned away from him, and headed back into the classroom to find Lily just as in a bitter mood as I was; apparently James had taken his chances with asking her.

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><p><strong>So who do you think is in the right in this situation? Bella or Sirius? Do you think she is overreacting or do you think he deserved it? Let me know what you think in a review or PM! Thanks for reading!~ LG :)<strong>


	10. Chapter 10

**Here is the next chapter! ~Enjoy!**

****Also I have been getting some reviews about getting a Beta-reader, which I would honestly love to have because I know my writing could use some more thorough editing. If anyone would like to Beta read this story for me that would be incredible, just message me; if not, I will continue my search! Thanks for all the positive reviews and the alerts for the story!**

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><p>The day was filled with several hot tempered conversations between Lily and I and receiving many glares from both Sirius and James. I wasn't sure why James was mad at me, but to be honest I preferred not hearing the name 'Izzy' being flung at me every couple of seconds. We left the final class of the day and I knew that tonight would be yet another detention, this time it would be more uncomfortable than ever.<p>

Chelsea walked with me after class, like usual, and we made our way down to the dungeons to begin yet another day filled with flobberworms sorting. I mean honestly how many more flobberworms could there possibly be? Does Slughorn just mix them up again after we're finished for us to do all over again the following day? Either way I knew it would only be a two more nights of this, whether we had to sort flobberworms or polish trophies in the trophy room, I think I can live.

We were surprisingly the last two for detention, James and Sirius were already 'working' away at their table, which they decided today was at the far end from where Chelsea and I usually sit. It almost made me want to sit down beside them just to make them more upset, though I honestly didn't want anything to do with either one of them at the moment; from Sirius' comment about me to James' constant nagging me about Lily was all too much.

They didn't look up at me as I walked to the desk to grab my bucket of Flobberworms, they weren't event talking to one another which was a bit odd. I looked at the bucket placed before and grabbed the handle, pulling it off the table, only to have the bottom half of the bucket, the half filled with the worms, fall onto the ground, the handle still firm in my hand.

I could hear snickering from the right, "Prank war, Rettington, remember?" Sirius asked. I said nothing back to him, as I bent down to begin my picking up of the flobberworms, Chelsea eventually joining me in scooping them into the bucket to bring back to the table.

"We need to get them back" She murmured to me, as we both sat down on either side of the Potions tables. I rested my head in my hand as I used the other hand to separate the worms. "I was thinking that tomorrow we could-"

"No" I said simply. "Im not wasting anymore time on them. Im already having to explain to my parents why im behind on my classes now, I don't need anything else making this worse."

She stared at me for a few minutes, as if trying to figure out whether I was serious or not. A few moments later she turned her attention back to the worms, it was completely silent between us for the hour we were in there. The only thing that could be heard was the faint plopping sounds of the worms hitting the bottoms of the buckets. ~

The following morning was spent trying to catch up on my homework that I was too tired to do after detention. That of course meant not having time to eat breakfast...my schedule was getting way to messed up.

"Tomorrow would you want to go dress shopping with me?" I asked Lily, as we walked to Charms class. "Figure I should just get it over with so I wont be stuck with whatever ugly dresses are left."

"Sure" She said, in a rather cheery voice. "What color are you thinking of getting? I was thining maybe a purple or green-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa" I stopped in the middle of the corridor and turned to her. "You said you weren't getting a nice dress unless you were asked."

"Uh-huh"

"So that means-?"

"Yupp" I let out a small squeal of happiness and pulled her of to the side.

"Who asked you? Ravenclaw? Gryffindor? Hufflepuff? What year? Does he play Quidditch-"

"Breathe Belle" She said laughing, resting a hand on my shoulder. "Liam Craggius: he's a Gryffindor, sixth year, and yes he is on the Quidditch team."

We continued to chat about Liam, dresses, and just the Ball in general until we reached the classroom, where it seemed as though all hell had broke loose.

"We made a deal!" Sirius' voice came booming from behind me as I took my seat in the classroom.

"What are you talking about?" I asked him, looking from him to James who was furiously mumbled to himself behind Sirius. Peter was angry as well but that was most likely because James was upset. Remus, well, couldn't have cared less about what was going on as he sat peacefully in the corner of the room trying to read his book, though casually looking up every few seconds to listen in.

"You know exactly what im talking about!" He said, his voice growing louder. "You took our brooms, now where are they?"

I couldn't help but look over at Lily who was just as confused as I was, "Sirius-"

"You said these pranks weren't anything that that could potentially get us in trouble. You taking my broom wont let me be able to play in the Quidditch games, Craggius could replace me on the team!" James said adding into the conversation.

"Craggius?" Lily asked, though it was mostly to herself as no one seemed to be listening.

"So, Jame will get in trouble…not you." I said, glancing from James to Sirius. "Why are you so mad?"

"Where are they, Rettington?" He asked hotly.

"I told you, I don't know!"

"You're lying-"

"Good morning class, take your seats!" Professor Flitwick slowly made his way to the front of the classroom, though Sirius didn't seem to have any intention of going back to his seat.

"Give us back our brooms" He ordered.

"I don't know where they are!" I yelled back at him, getting more than enough attention on us.

"Mr. Black take your seat-"

"Chelsea!" I called to her as I watched her walk into the classroom now. "Where are their brooms? Did you take them?"

"Nope" She said, not even looking at me as she answered.

"Mr. Black, don't make me ask you again" Sirius, after a few more moments of giving me a glare that could easily come in second place as the most dangerous of looks, right next to Lily's, before turning back to take his seat. I let out a breath of air that I hadn't realized I had been holding the entire time.

What I couldn't understand was why Sirius was so mad at me. Second I couldn't figure out why Chelsea would let me take the fall for something she clearly did. I could feel several pairs of eyes on me as class began, I could feel my cheeks get hot, but I made it a point not to acknowledge any of the stares. I couldn't wait until tomorrow, no classes, and most important…no detentions. Tonight was the last night, and especially after what had just happened in class today I was thankful for that. ~

Slughorn, for the first time in…well the entire two weeks of us having detention, joined us. Though this would make me nervous having a teacher watch over us, I felt more comfortable knowing that Sirius wouldn't have another meltdown. It seems as though we had officially ran out of flobberworms, though my theory on whether or not we had us separate the same flobberworms for the last several days is still alive. I was more than happy to write down an essay for McGonagall of 'Why im in detention and why I wont be here ever again'.

All you could hear were the scratches of quills against parchment and the occasional mumbles from Slughorn as he looked over our homework assignments from the week. I couldn't help but wonder what horrible grade I was to get on them, having to work with James wasn't exactly easy when we were still getting along…just think of how it went when we weren't even on talking terms. I wrote the last few words down, signing my name at the very bottom, and walked up to the front of the classroom.

"Im finished, sir" I said, breaking the long term silence. He glanced up from his work and took the neatly written paper from me, looking over it.

"Good work, Annabelle, I will give this to Professor McGonagall first thing in the morning. Have a good night." He told me with a smile, I thanked him and turned to head out of the room.

"See ya Annabelle" I heard someone taunt from behind me. ~

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think~ LG<strong>


	11. Chapter 11

**THANK YOU TO MY 100 REVIEWER Nacho5! ALSO THANK YOU TO THE OTHER REVIEWERS! HONESTLY YOU ARE ALL INCREDIBLE AND I CANT BELIEVE YOU ALL ARE READING AND LIKING MY WRITING! Okay sorry I will relax with the capslock now...hope you enjoy~ :)  
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><p>Everyone of the fifth year Gryffindor girls, with the exception of Tallulah of course, went out dress shopping that weekend for the Ball. Hogsmeade was much busier than usual, well, that's what I was told. It was my first trip down there since I have been at Hogwarts, and let me just say this- it definitely wont be my last. Did you know they had an entire store with candy? I mean JUST candy! Insanity! I knew I would have to build up my stock pile for the upcoming Winter Break.<p>

"Any ideas for what dress you're going to get?" Chelsea asked, breaking the silence between the four of us. I only shook my head no while the other girls seemed to have dressed picked out in their minds. They went on, each with their own description of their own thought up dressed that would be their ideal gowns for the evening.

Alice, who had failed to answer the question about whether or not she was going with a date, seemed to be the most nervous about this. I couldnt help but be nervous too; this was my first 'date' after all. I knew if my mum was here she would make sure every little thing was perfect for me; I still wondered whether or not they were receiving any of my letters. I hoped so.

"Here we are!" Lily exclaimed, breaking me from my train of thought. A smile grew on my face as we entered the shop; it was already filled with girls all ages and from each of the four houses. Whether it be seventh year Slytherins or a first year Hufflepuffs. It seemed to be the one time where all the girls had something in common with each other.

"How about we each pick out a dress then meet at the dressing rooms, okay?" We all agreed and headed our separate ways. I found myself lost within the first few seconds; I had no idea what I wanted. Each dress was completely different from the next; gold, green, one cover in sparkles, one in feathers and even one that would change colors every few seconds. I love magic.

"Would you like any help finding anything, dear?" A voice asked from behind me. I turned to find a tall woman with short curly blonde hair and a tape measure thrown over her shoulder.

"Oh-erm,no thanks" I said quickly with a smile. I peered up from the racks of clothes to see that some of the girls I had come here with standing, dresses in hand, by the dressing rooms. Not wanting to keep everyone waiting I hurriedly grabbed the first dress in reach and walked over to the other girls.

Chelsea came a few moments after I did, now it was the moment of truth for all of us...actually trying on the dresses.

I slipped into the first available dressing room and hung the dress up so I could get a full view of it, "Oh dear god." I mumbled to myself as I found that the dress I had grabbed was about three sizes to small. "Here goes nothing..."

The fact that I had actually broken a sweat whole trying to put this dress on was quite honestly the most ridiculous thing. Finally after a few more trying to suck in and slide the dress up, I just gave up.

"I need to lay of the chocolate frogs..." I whispered to myself as I hastily threw on my other clothes. I stepped out of the dressing room to see that Lily was the only one with her dress on.

"What do you think?" She asked, pulling her red hair over her shoulder. She looked stunning; the ivory green dress matched her eyes to a T.

"It looks awesome, Lil." I said nodding. "He's going to love it!"

"Didnt you like yours?" She asked, looking down at the silver dress in my hands.

"Oh, um...no. Didnt like it." I told her with a shrug.

"Dont worry i'll help you find one. " She assured me. We waited a few more moments before Alice walked out, just as defeated as I had been, I gave her an 'I know how you feel' look, and we waited for Chelsea.

A few more moments and Chelsea walked out wearing a cute strapless cutout dress that stopped just above the knee; it was a deep shade of purple in color. She wore it well.

"Is that the one?" I asked her, standing behind her as she admired herself in the mirror.

"I think so" She said with a smile. "Im going to go pay for it, i'll meet you guys at the front." I nodded.

"Lets go find you a dress." Lily said, linking her arm with mine as we walked through the racks of dresses. "How about this one?" She held up a lavender colored dress, shook my head and scrunched my nose up. "Ok...this one?" Again I shook my head no. After I gave her the same response after the next six dresses, she finally held one up that I was okay with. It was maroon colored dress, designed a bit like the one Chelsea had on expect it was a bit longer.

"I'll try it" I said, knowing that it would make Lily happy if I did. She hurried me back towards the dressing room to try it on. For a few moments I just stared at it as it hung on the hook in front of me. I sighed and stripped off my clothes, praying that it wouldnt end like the other one had.

I slipped the dress over my head, and zipped it up half way, the only half I could reach. It was a good sign at least. I turned to the mirror inside the dressing room, much like Lily had done I pulled my hair off to the side. I actually liked it.

"Huh" I said spinning around a bit in the dress, finally I stepped out to see what Lily thought. "So?" I asked.

"Bella you look incredible!" She told me. "You have to buy it! Come one lets-"

"Can I at least change out of it first?" I asked, laughing at her. She smiled and rolled her eyes a bit.

"I'll wait up front for you, k?" I nodded and went back in to change out of it.

As I slid on my old clothes I snatched the dress off of the floor and looked at the tag. _Uh oh_. I didnt have nearly enough money with me to pay for this thing. I poked my head out of the dressing room to see if any of the girls were there. Realizing they were all at the front I stepped out of the changing room and put the dress back onto the rack and hurried to the front, thinking of an excuse of _why_ im not buying it.

"Where's the dress, Belle?" Lily asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"You know, I didnt really like it as much as I thought...I dont know, its just...yeah." Is there an award of being possibly the worst liar?

"Well, alright..." Lily said, giving me a strange look before turning to the woman who was ringing up her dress.

After all the girls, even Alice whose dress I didnt see yet, bought their dresses then we headed out of the store.

"Girls day out is it?" A voice asked from behind us. We all turned in unison to see the four fifth year Gryffindor boys lurking outside of the dress shop. I couldnt help but wonder if they had followed us here or not.

"Piss off, would you?" Chelsea snapped back at the boys, who only pretended to be offended.

"Where's your dress Rettington?" James asked, cocking an eyebrow, eerily similar to Lily's. "Or is it you're not going to the Ball? Flaky that Garret is. Wouldnt be surprised if he's forgotten your name by now."

I felt my face go red, I was about to open my mouth to say something though nothing came out. I looked from James to Sirius and sent him a glare as well before storming off; the girls right behind me.

"I hate them." I mumbled, understanding where Lily has been coming from this whole time.

"You know they're just trying to get under your skin!" Lily mumbled. "Look we'll go back tomorrow and get another dress-"

"I cant get those dresses!" I said back to her, I said a bit louder than I had anticipated. "I cant afford them!"

Lily's face went pale, but she quickly shook it off, "Its fine Belle, we can go to a different store. Those dresses were no good anyway..." She said trying to make me feel somewhat better about this.

I let out a sigh and tried to put aside the crazy emotions that were weirdly flooding my head. This Ball was turning into more of a burden than a pleasure. ~

The rest of the day I spent alone studying inside of the library, I even missed out on dinner; this Transfiguration assignment was much harder than I thought. After several hours of studying the librarian asked me to leave as it was already an hour past the time we were supposed to be in our common room.

Within a few minutes of sluggishly walking I found myself in front of the fat Lady, "Pig snout" I mumbled before the portrait passageway opened. There were several students inside of the common room who were talking loudly with one another. I didnt even bother to see who was down there, I just headed straight up to my dorm.

"Hey Belle you have a present on the bed" Alice said from the other end of the room, she hadnt even looked up from the book she has had her head in for the past week. I cocked my head to the side as I stared at the brown wrapping paper covered box. There wasnt a note or card or anything that could help me learn who it was from.

"Who brought it up here?" I asked Alice, she glanced up for a quick second before shrugging.

"Dunno, all I know is someone brought it during dinner. It was here when I got back."

Without a second thought I began to rip apart the wrappings and opened up the box. Inside was...the dress?

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><p><strong>Let me know what you think! :) thanks for reading~ LG<strong>


	12. Chapter 12

**Whoa...okay hello. Im back from my hiatus! I attempted to reread the first part of my story but I didnt get all the way caught up...sorry if I am off on a few things. Anyway yeah! Im surprised people still like this story and I cant wait to begin writing again! **

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><p><em>The lighting in the Great Hall was dimmed, and the silhouettes of the other students slow dancing around us couldn't be more irrelevant at the moment. All I could focus on was him; my head was pressed into his chest, as we leaned back and forth to the pace of the music. I felt his hand tip my chin up, so I was looking up at him. "I love you Isabella Rettington" Sirius Black whispered to me. His eyes closed and he began to lean in closer to me, our lips about to touch-<em>

"Bella?" I felt myself shaken awake. "You alright?" I looked up to see Lily whose head was cocked and an eyebrow was raised.

"Um yeah…er…why?" I asked, I felt my face go into a deep red. I swear if I said anything in my sleep….

"You were just tossing and turning; thought you were having a nightmare or something." She told me, still looking pretty confused.

"Oh…um yeah I was, but I'm fine and it wasn't real." I said, in a robotic tone. She only nodded and walked back into the bathroom to finish getting ready for school.

To be quite honest…I don't know what that dream was about. I mean I knew what it was about, but why? Why him?

I kept running possibilities through my mind while changing into my robes. I didn't bother with my hair today and just tied it up into a ponytail. I glanced down at the box with the dress in it and groaned. The girls in the dorm swear they didn't know anything about it, which I still have a hard time believing. Who else comes in here?

"Ready?" Lily asked, rolling her sleeves up above her elbows. I only nodded, grabbing my book bag and headed out with her- I swear, this day is going to be a strange one. I can feel it. ~

"What's your deal?"Lily whispered during the first of what I'm sure to be many horribly boring stories told by Professor Binns.

I shrugged, "What do you mean?" knowing perfectly well what she was hinting about. Throughout the two other classes I've had so far today, I found myself glancing at Sirius every other minute. Something about that dream is making me feel anxious and nervous whenever he comes into my mind, or even if I hear his name said by someone else.

"Nothing, you just seem…ill or something." She said, causing me get a sudden realization of what was actually wrong with me. Vivid, realistic dreams, the anxiety, the unruly sweating that has caused me to practically soak through my robes…I _was_ ill! Well…sort of, but the fact that I hadn't taken my potion is definitely has something to do with this!

I felt a sigh escape my lips knowing that I wasn't falling madly in love with Sirius; However, I suppose this still doesn't explain the reasoning behind the actual dream. But for now, I will blame my lack of potion.

After class I rushed out of the classroom and headed to the Hospital Wing, to find Madam Pomfrey standing at the foot of a bed talking to a student who looked as if he has a bad case of dragon pox.

I waited towards the doorway for a few moments before she turned to me, "I assured you not to be late this time, Miss Rettington." She told me walking passed me and into her cabinet. "If you had been even a few hours later you would have gone passed your potions due date, you do realize this?"

"Yes Ma'am…I promise I'll be here next time on…er-"

She rolled her eyes, "Friday, Miss Rettington."

"Oh! Of course Friday…I know…" I told her, grabbing my potion and drinking it in one gulp, trying not to get any of it on my tongue. "Thank you!"

"Of course, dear" She mumbled walking back in to tend to the ill student. I quickly made my way to my next class, though I knew I would be at least a few minutes late. And let me just say…being late to Transfiguration isn't pleasant.

I opened the doors, immediately getting everyone's attentions onto me, including Sirius' (okay the potion hasn't kicked in yet, that's why I feel like I'm having a heart attack).

"And why is it that you're late Miss Rettington?" Professor McGonagall asked, without taking her eyes away from her book that she was intently going over.

"I was…I went to the Hospital Wing, Professor." I told her adding a fake cough, probably the most unnecessary thing I will do all day today.

"Very well, take your seat and begin reading chapter 4." She told me, taking a quick glance up at me, then back down to her book. I nodded and practically jogged back to my seat.

"No really Professor I'm sick, I swear!" I heard whispers behind me say, adding in obnoxiously fake and over exaggerated coughs. If there was ever a worst time for James voice to be heard, it would be right at this moment. "Hopefully you'll be better before the Ball, wouldn't want to keep Garrett waiting." James whispered getting a much needed glare from McGonagall.

I could barely get through even the first page of the book before it was time to move on to the assignment, which, in typical 'not my day' fashion, was about the chapter. Fortunately I managed to come up with what seemed to be a pretty decent report, which involved me rewording the question every other sentence. I realize that McGonagall will notice this, but for the time being it works. ~~

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><p>That was basically the theme throughout this week for me; Just simply doing what I could to get by for school. Too be honest I'm not sure what it was that kept me distracted this entire week. Maybe it was that whole dream thing still…or maybe even the Ball itself. Perhaps, and most likely, both.<p>

The dance was tonight, and word around the school is that it's going to be Masquerade themed, which for me couldn't be a better choice. Spending all night with my face covered is best case scenario for me. I still questioned Lily about the dress, though no avail, so I made my peace with just keeping it for the night (not exactly a tough decision there).

The girls in the dorm were helping each other get ready, with the exception of Tallulah of course. Lily decided to take the role of curling my hair; while Chelsea took on the job of doing my makeup (home schooled kids need more help than usual apparently).

To get everything completely finished up took about two hours, which I spent most of watching the other girls do their own hair and makeup. But finally when it was time, we all walked down there together. We made it to the stairs, which let me say are hard enough to walk on but add in the concept of heels and you're done for.

We split up once we had gotten to the great hall itself, most of the girls meeting their dates outside, however, Andrew told me to meet him inside the hall itself. Usually I wouldn't think twice about it, but remembering the whole 'Masquerade' thing made this about one hundred times more difficult. We each were handed masks at the front of the Hall, mine being black with feathers on the sides and Lily's being purple, and found everyone else wearing them too. You could hardly tell who anyone was with the masks!

"Hey!" I heard someone call, I turned my attention to see an unmasked Andrew waving at me from beside the food table, giving me a sense of relief knowing I wasnt going to have to search for him.

"I'll see you later" Lily told me, giving me a smile before wandering off into the crowd.

"Want some punch?" He asked, having already poured me a cup. I gave him a small smile and nodded.

"Thanks" I told him before taking a sip. It had a definite bitter flavor to it, but I drank it nonetheless.

"You should put your mask on before we go dance." He told me wrapping his around his head. "You ready?"

I tipped my head back and quickly drank the rest of my punch, slide my mask on, and headed out to the middle of the crowd. The whole masked thing gives you a large sense of confidence when no one knows who you are. That was pretty evident in my dancing.

Throughout the next hour, I made at least four more trips to the punch bowl, downing a few more drinks before I realized…well, I needed the bathroom. I decided to manage my way to the nearest restroom and quickly make it back before the next song started. It was one of those noisy muggle rock groups that I hear Sirius going on about from time to time.

I began to stumble my way back into the Great Hall, but found myself completely confused about my whereabouts. The crowd around me continued to move and push me further from where I had been. Great. Now I'm lost in a sea of people. And if there was anything that could make this experience even worse it was the sudden nausea and dizziness that soon followed.

I quickly felt myself lose my balance, falling back into the crowd and eventually to the ground. I heard a few comments including the word 'lightweight' being directed at me before I heard my name being called.

It was getting darker, giving me the impression I was passing out, but luckily that was not the case. I was lifted up into somewhat of a hug position with someone, causing my head to lean into their chest; the lights around me had obviously dimmed, and the students began to slowly sway to the now calming music.

I felt a hand under my chin and direct my sight towards the person who was holding me. I looked directly into the unmasked face of Sirius Black.

"Oh god…you're not gonna kiss me are you?" I slurred, finding myself needing his help standing more than necessary.

"Um no…Bella are you…drunk?" He asked me, trying to keep me from tumbling back to the ground.

I managed to push myself away from him and into a barely standing position, "No" I assured him. "I've only had the punch!"

"And how much of the punch did you have?" He asked me, his hands on my shoulders, keeping me still.

I shrugged "Probably like 5… 5 of the punch"

"That….doesn't even make any sense. Ok you're coming with me." He told me, wrapping an arm around my waist and leading me out of the Great Hall.

"Oi! What're you doing with my date?" I heard someone yell, though I didnt bother to turn around. I was too focused on not throwing up to be honest. But if im correct, then the voice I heard was coming from a very angry Andrew. This will end nicely, im sure.

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><p><strong>Ok, in my typically fashion I didnt plan the way this was going to end. I just kind of write until an ending sort of falls into place. I always hear about people spiking the punch at high school proms and dances and what not so I thought, 'why not have that happen at Hogwarts?' Haha So, like always feel free to leave a review or even message me about the story. If I need to work on anything or if you just want to say hello thats always awesome. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed or saved this in their alertsfavorites already! Thanks for reading guys. :) ~LG  
><strong>


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